New York: a cruiser's guide

Douglas Rogers offers a complete cruiser’s guide to eating, sightseeing and
shopping in New York.

Douglas Rogers

2:40PM GMT 21 Feb 2008

Few experiences are as exhilarating as arriving in New York City by ship. From that first glimpse of the Statue of Liberty pointing the way in the bay, to the awe-inspiring sight of the glass, steel and concrete skyscrapers of Manhattan, you instantly know you’re in a place of heady promise and near-mythical power.

Of course, as with all big cities, that frisson of excitement can be tinged with apprehension: New York looks at once familiar and foreign, and its very size can leave you feeling overwhelmed.

The good news, however, is that it is now one of the safest big cities in the world, and one of the easiest to get around. Taxis are cheap (compared to London), the subway system is clean and convenient, and if your ship docks in Manhattan (there are two other cruise terminals), virtually every major tourist attraction - The Empire State Building, Central Park, Rockefeller Center, Radio City Music Hall - is within walking distance.

Time your shore excursion right and you can take in a matinée on Broadway and inspect the neon lights of Times Square, while still finding time for either a martini and rib-eye at a classic steakhouse or a jazz session at a West Village speakeasy.

If tourist sights and jazz trumpets don’t take your fancy, take advantage of the weaker US dollar to stock up on gifts and clothes at the grand department stores on Fifth Avenue or the boutiques of Madison Avenue and SoHo. You may even have enough money left for a Cristal champagne toast when you get back to the ship.

Arriving

There are three cruise ship port services in New York.

Manhattan Cruise Terminal

The most convenient is the Manhattan Cruise Terminal (711 12th Avenue, 001 212 246 5450,www.nycruise.com) located on the Hudson River at 12th Avenue, between 46th and 54th Streets, and dominated by Norwegian and Carnival Cruise Lines. This is west side of Midtown Manhattan, a mere six blocks from Times Square and the south west corner of Central Park.

Taxis, town car services, and - yes - stretch limousines, are lined up outside the terminal at the intersection of 55th Street and 12th Avenue. The closest subway trains are the A, C, B, D and 1 trains at Columbus Circle at 59th and Broadway where you will also find the imperious Time Warner Center.

Brooklyn Cruise Terminal

The Brooklyn Cruise Terminal (Pier 12, Red Hook, www.nycruise.com; 001 718 246 2794) opened in 2006 and serves the mega-ships of Princess Cruises and Cunard, most notably the Queen Mary 2, the only ship offering regular scheduled Trans-Atlantic services from the UK.

The soon-to-retire Queen Elizabeth 2, and the newly-unveiled Queen Victoria, also dock here. The terminal is not close to any trains or subway stations, so it’s recommended you take a cab or book car services to and from the port.

Executive Transportation Group (001 718 438 1100, ext. 3235) is the authorised Black Car service from here and cars can be booked from the ship. An ETG ride to downtown Manhattan (below 23rd Street) costs $41 (£21) and takes 10-15 minutes depending on traffic; to midtown (23rd-59th Street) you pay $51.00 (£26) for the 20-minute journey.

Ask the driver to take you over the Brooklyn Bridge instead of through the Brooklyn-Battery Tunnel: it’s a little longer but you avoid paying tolls and get better city views. A yellow cab from the terminal to Manhattan is a much cheaper $20-25 (£10-13) alternative to downtown, and a far more authentic New York experience, but it is harder to find them in Red Hook. Rather, take one from Manhattan back to the ship. Instruct the driver to go to the corner of Bowne and Imlay Streets in Red Hook.

Cape Liberty Cruise Port

Royal Caribbean and Celebrity Cruises operate from New York’s third terminal: the Cape Liberty Cruise Port (14 Port Terminal Boulevard; 001 201 823 3737; www.cruiseliberty.com) which is actually in Bayonne, New Jersey, on the south side of New York Harbour.

The port is seven miles (25-minutes’ drive) from Manhattan and three miles (15 minutes) from Newark International Airport. Several car companies service Manhattan from the port. Bayonne Yellow Cab (001 201 339 5000) or Campbell Taxi (001 201 339 8300) charge $67 (£34) to midtown (including tolls).

If you want to save money and have the time, take the NJ Hudson-Bergen Light Rail (www.njtransit.com) to Jersey City or Hoboken and change to the PATH (www.panynj.gov) train to Manhattan, exiting at either 33rd Street, 23rd Street, 14th Street or Christopher St in the heart of the West Village. The 30-minute journey costs a mere $3 (£1.55) each way.

What to see

1. Empire State Building

Get your bearings, and an idea of the sheer size and scale of the city, from the 86th or 102nd floor observatory decks of the most recognisable building in America. Open from 9.30am to midnight, on clear days you can see as far as Connecticut and Pennsylvania, but try going late on a misty evening, or during a snowstorm, when the lights from the surrounding skyscrapers bounce off the clouds below you and you feel as if you’re floating above the earth.

A vast 843-acre green belt, Central Park has a zoo, two public ice rinks, a reservoir, a theatre, a castle, miles of paths and acres of grassland perfect for summer picnics. Central Park Walking Tours (001 212 721 0874) offer various guided two-hour walks for $17 (£8).

The northern part of the park is less busy and the Conservatory Garden (001 212 630 2766) at 105th Street and 5th Avenue, is the park’s best-kept secret: three landscaped gardens in English, Italian and French styles. Sip cocktails while watching rowers on the lake at The Boathouse (001 212 517 2233; www.thecentralparkboathouse.com) or dine in style at the Gothic 1870-built Tavern on the Green (001 212 873 3200).

59th up 110th Street, between 8th and 5th Avenue

3. Museum Mile

There are no less than nine museums along Fifth Avenue, between 82nd and 105th Streets, each offering a different artistic or historical perspective. The flagship is the Metropolitan Museum of Art (5th Avenue at 82nd Street; 001 212 535 7710), which is so enormous that you’ll be overwhelmed if you don’t narrow your focus. Don’t miss the Greek and Roman galleries on the first floor.

The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum at 89th Street (001 212 423 3500,www.guggenheim.org; Sat-Wed, 10am-5.45pm, Fri, 10am-7.45pm; $15-18/£8-9) features modern art in a modernist shell-shaped building that is as much a part of the experience as the exhibits.

The Museum of the City of New York at 103rd Street (001 212 534 1672, www.mcny.org; Tue-Sun, 10am-5pm; $10-11/£5-6) in a handsome red mansion exhibits art and manuscripts relating to the history of the city.

Fifth Avenue, Between 82nd and 105th Streets.

4. Times Square

While it’s more Disney than dangerous these days, this central Manhattan area is the pulsating heart of urban New York - and it still retains its manic edge. Visit at night and the flashing neon on towering glass buildings is a dramatic counterpoint to the venerable theatres of Broadway below. For the real scoop, buy a Soundwalk Times Square CD (or download one at www.soundwalk.com). It’s a thrilling behind-the-scenes audio tour of the district with a Times Square resident.

Times Square is along Broadway and Seventh Avenue, from 42nd to 47th Streets.

5. Brooklyn

If your ship docks in Brooklyn, you can take a private guided tour of the historic borough with the man who knows it best: writer and guide Norman Oder, founder of New York Like a Native (001 718 393 7537, www.nylikeanative.com).

His featured tours include Brooklyn Heights, Brooklyn Bridge, Coney Island, the handsome brownstone mansions of Park Slope and Fort Greene, and a walk through the 585-acre urban oasis that is Prospect Park, considered by many to be more beautiful than Olmsted and Vaux’s Central Park.

Make sure to stop for a snack at the culinary gem Junior’s (001 718 852 5257, juniorscheesecake.com), a down-home downtown diner that makes America’s most celebrated cheesecake. Tours can last from two to four hours and cost between $15 and $40 per person (£8-21). Phone well in advance for the private tours.

Excursions

Since most cruise lines use New York as a departure and return port as opposed to a destination, few of them offer organised on-shore tours.

However Cunard (001 845 071 0300; www.cunard.co.uk), which is part of Princess Cruises (www.princess.com), treats New York as a destination and offers a variety of excursions.

A typical Cunard coach tour takes in major sites such as Times Square, Broadway and the Empire State Building, with variations on the second half of the trip. The Discover Downtown Manhattan excursion is a six-hour journey that focuses on Wall Street and the views of the harbour and Statue of Liberty from the southern tip of Manhattan.

It also includes Ground Zero and a walk through the South Street Seaport Maritime Museum - a bustling open-air 12-block dockland of cobbled streets on the East River that is now a gentrified district of shops, cafes and restaurants. Tours last between four and eight hours and cost from $59 (£30) to $119 (£61) per person.

You can, of course, also pre-book excursions with local tour companies.

A1 NYC Sightseeing (001 212 696 6666, www.a1nycsightseeing.com) is an established city company that provides group or private tours and will pick you up from port. Go for the less obvious trips: a tour of the UN building features lunch in the delegates’ dining room, and a Chinatown visit includes a lunch stop at a famous dim sum restaurant.

Historians and film buffs will enjoy their Real Gangs of New York walking tour, a close up look at the once-violent Lower Manhattan slum district around Little Italy, Chinatown and The Bowery – an area that perfected tap dance, crooked politics and rigged elections and inspired the hit Martin Scorsese movie. Hank’s New York Tours (001 646 234 0997, www.hanksnewyork.com) is excellent for a behind-the-scenes look at New York neighbourhoods such as Harlem and the West Village.

Empire Tours US (001 347 680 4706; www.empiretoursusa.com) offers excellent architectural tours of the city. Expect to pay at least $40 (£20) per person for scheduled New York tours lasting up to four hours; private tours will cost more.

For those familiar with Manhattan’s shops who are keen to pick up bargains farther afield, Woodbury Commons Premium Outlet Mall (www.premiumoutlets.com), an hour north of the city, is a sprawling complex with over 220 designer and name-brand stores including Armani, Versace, Burberry, Gucci, Prada and Polo. Prices are often 65 per cent below Manhattan prices. Gray Line New York Sightseeing (www.coachusa.com) departs six times a day from the Port Authority station at 34th Street, and costs $40 (£20) for adults, $21 (£10) for children. Cunard offers a six-hour Woodbury Commons trip.

Where to eat

Meal prices are per person, based on three courses with wine.

1. BLT Market

Master French chef Laurent Tourondel’s latest venture is an elegant country-chic restaurant in the fabulous Ritz-Carlton hotel, overlooking Central Park. Organic ingredients help shape the sublime dishes, such as gnocchi in fennel cream sauce with lamb sausage, or the juicy pepper-rub strip steak. The restaurant’s patio section has windows opening onto the street in spring and summer - the perfect place for a lunch stop after a Central Park stroll.

This New York landmark on the Food Concourse of Grand Central Station is an arched-ceiling masterpiece with vinyl booths, red-checked tablecloths and a vintage counter. Couples and commuters come to slurp seafood chowder and oysters on the half shell shipped in from every coast, washed down with chilled Champagne. A beautiful glimpse into Gilded Age New York.

This vintage wood panelled pub has been serving hearty bar food and cold pints of ale since 1922. A last SoHo hold-out against gentrification, there are two rooms downstairs and a classic counter at which to pull up a stool and order a burger with bacon and fries, or their classic Maryland crab-cake sandwich. And don’t be put off by the surly service: that’s the old New York way of saying they care.

94 Prince St 001 212 226 9412

Monday-Saturday lunch, dinner. Sunday brunch $40 (£20)

5. Katz’s Delicatessen

If you want to eat on the trot, have what she’s having at this historic Jewish deli on the Lower East Side. The location for Meg Ryan’s When Harry Met Sally orgasm scene, the menu includes hot dogs, salamis and huge pastrami on rye sandwiches. Wall-mounted menus publicise the seemingly endless choices available and the portions are sure to see you through the day.

Where to Shop

Clothing and Jewellery

Fifth Avenue, from 50th Street to the corner of Central Park at 59th, has some of the most glittering retail names in the world. Saks Fifth Avenue (number 611) features everything from Gucci shoes to Vera Wang wedding dresses.

Try Bergdorf Goodman Men’s (745) for traditional menswear, and classy Henri Bendel (712) for boutique clothes and retro gifts such as vintage hats and cameras. Nearby is the legendary Tiffany (727): pretend you’re Audrey Hepburn and head for the diamond rings on the second floor.

Two blocks east on Madison Avenue you will find Barneys (61st Street and Madison, 001 212 355 8070), the classy men’s’ and women’s clothing department. From here up to 72nd Street, Armani, Versace, Prada, Ralph Lauren and Pratesi have flagship stores.

Electronics

J & R Music & Computer World (23 Park Row, 001 212-238-9000) is a 300 000 square foot electronic store with ten entrances taking up an entire Tribeca block. It sells everything from computers and cameras to music and movies.

Books

Forget Borders and Barnes & Noble: The Strand (828 Broadway at East 12th, 001 212 473 1452), is a legendary second-hand bookstore. Its cluttered shelves are packed with rare or out-of-print editions and there are bargain prices for virtually every book you can think of. The only problem is actually finding it. Ask staff for assistance.

Essentials

Time difference: New York is five hours behind GMT.

Tipping: It’s standard to tip 15 per cent to 20 per cent in restaurants.

Sales tax in NYC is 8.5 per cent. Taxes are not included in listed shop or restaurants prices.

Tourist information: Look up www.nycvisit.com, the website of NYC and Company. Pick up maps, leaflets and other information from the Official Visitor Information Centre (810 7th Ave, between 52nd and 53rd Street, 001 212 484 1222) open Monday to Friday, 8:30am to 6pm; Saturday, Sunday and holidays, 9am to 5pm.

Getting Around: Single rides on the subway cost $2 (£1), but a $10 (£5) ticket will get you six rides. All tickets can be used on city buses too. Yellow cabs cost $2.50 (£1.25) on entry, and $2 (£1) per mile. Black Lincoln Town Cars are ubiquitous, but the fares are negotiable.